Qualifying leads means finding out how ready a prospect is to buy. The higher the lead quality, the more likely they become paying customers. Many businesses try to reach and capture as many leads as possible. But if these leads are low quality and don’t generate a sale, your efforts are wasted. It is necessary to segment your leads upfront, to use your marketing budget effectively.
But how much information do you actually need to evaluate the probability of a lead becoming a paying customer? How do we see the customer fit if we haven’t spoken to the customer yet?
Let’s quickly re-evaluate why qualifying leads is important. If you invest in lead-nurturing campaigns for all prospective customers, you will lose time and money. Therefore, it is valuable to rank leads upfront. The parameters you can use to rank leads differ from company to company. Many companies use parameters like “probable closing time, business size, location or engagement on website” to get a first idea of the closing probability. One caveat – In the beginning, it is challenging to rank leads because you do not have any experience which parameters directly influence the closing probability for your business. However, the more your business grows, the better you know which leads have a high chance of closing.
How to measure the quality of leads
How to improve the quality of leads
• Make form fields required
• Ask for business e-mail on your website
• Listen to your prospects’ needs and provide quality content to answer their questions
Marketing qualified leads & sales qualified leads (MQL & SQL)
One caveat – not all leads who have shown interest should be treated the same. Define which leads have the most value to your business and who will most likely buy your service. For example, leads who have created an account on your website did a much higher commitment than people who just signed up for your newsletter. If you have identified that leads who created an account are much more likely to buy from you, this is where you should focus your efforts. Without those metrics set, you will waste valuable time and money without helping them to make a purchase.
Looking at the user journey, marketing qualified leads turn into sales qualified leads, turning then into customers. The major difference between MQL and SQL is their commitment to buy from you. While MQLs might just have found out about your service but still want to shop around, SQLs already have decided. To define when a lead transitioned to becoming a SQL, first think about the buyer journey. If Lead A downloaded your lead magnet, created an account afterward, and then bought your service, while Lead B only downloaded your lead magnet without buying from you, you will get insights on where the tipping point is for leads to become SQLs. With your personas in mind and a lead scoring system in place, your sales team will know when to take action.
Understanding when leads turn into SQLs is essential for your business not to waste time writing proposals for leads who are not interested in your service.